


Echoes of Earth: io and ares

by Astrothaut (SyntheticAngel), FullSizeRender



Series: Character One-Shots, Etc [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Original Characters - Freeform, Original work - Freeform, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Sexual Content, Smut, original - Freeform, scifi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:21:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26523598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyntheticAngel/pseuds/Astrothaut, https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullSizeRender/pseuds/FullSizeRender
Summary: "Echoes of Earth" is meant to be a retrospective series of canon events that occur before "Other Worlds" begins.That being said, this one happens to be just...smut. Our troubled and sexually frustrated accountant io finds something attractive in a high security clearance, brilliant and lonely engineer ares. He's not a robot, but he's close enough for her.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character
Series: Character One-Shots, Etc [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810666
Kudos: 5





	Echoes of Earth: io and ares

“Do you want to come back to my place?”

The question was unanticipated. io had never been around so many tech-oriented people before, and that was because Isotech’s summer company party included just about every department. She had stuck pretty close to Europa and other finance folks, feeling like a sore thumb in a tight dress (god why did she wear dresses when she hated people looking at her?) but that was how most of the others around her looked. There were drinks. There was mingling. She didn’t know the majority of people, especially not in the engineering fields, but that was where Ares came in.

He was  _ the guy _ , after all. They met when she had to clarify a discrepancy on her accounts a few weeks ago, and she recognized his fiery hair immediately. They’d hit it off when she showed a passionate interest in what he did, and he went out of his way afterwards to have a lunch break in her neck of the woods. A  _ lead _ engineer on Isotech’s more classified projects, with a team of serially intelligent human beings wearing similar Greek monikers. They were dorky, and to a woman who loved machinery, they were the most attractive human beings could be without actually being robots. She mingled with them for an hour at the party before Ares in a flattering suit asked her the question.

The planets aligned, and said yes.

“Rocks?” She had asked when they arrived at his apartment and she laid eyes on an encased collection of what just appeared to be...rocks. The rest of his place was relatively clean, save for used cups here or there, a towel hanging off of the couch, a table of unintelligible plans and what she assumed were architect’s tools. It was all standard nerd paraphernalia as far as she knew. “I’m guessing they have to be pretty special rocks.”

“They’re rare minerals from off-world, caught by some Isotech interceptors. I actually went back to college and got an expedited Xenogeology degree last year just so I could have an excuse to bring those home. Uh...I do a lot of work in my off time.” Ares gently shut the door behind him, then took off his coat and hung it on a rack next to the door. “Excuse the mess, I wasn’t exactly expecting to have a visitor.”

On his way to the kitchen he scooped up at least a couple of the empty coffee cups in an attempt to tidy up, depositing them unceremoniously in the sink. At this point he was in uncharted waters, full of nervous energy and unsure of how to spend it. He was thrilled to have io here, but one would never be able to tell from his calm expression and the prominent bags under his eyes.

His head swirled with answers to one simple question: What now?

“Can I...get you a drink?” He drummed his fingers against the marble countertop, glancing between his cabinet and his fridge. “I can mix you something if you’d like, I have wine...it’ll be stronger than the stuff at the party though, since they water their drinks down. We aren’t worth the good stuff, it seems.”

She laughed and nodded, setting her bag down on the couch and tugging her dress down a little. Dresses had a tendency to ride up on her curves...maybe not such a bad thing with the company, though. Her heart beat anxiously. She caught several framed degrees and awards along the hallway she just passed and her brows rose. 

“Engineering degree  _ and  _ xenogeology? That’s...incredible. I’m sure you’ve heard that plenty of times.” She suddenly felt  _ very _ inadequate in his presence, but not the kind that made her want to leave. On the contrary, she felt...interested? Impressed, definitely, but something unfamiliar vibrated in her chest. “Wine sounds good, thank you.”

She wandered to the display case, the sparkle of purples and blues piquing her curiosity. Most of the rocks behaved as rocks do: not at all. But a particularly pretty one second to last of the line glowed faintly as she raised a hand to the rim of the display. Maybe it was the reflection of his dimmed overhead room lights, but that little stone spoke to her in colors. io leaned in.

“I can’t believe the things you work on every day. It’s hard to get behind the ‘bringing humanity to the future’ bit of Isotech when all I get to see are department budgets. But you…” she smiled to herself, then walked over to the table with strewn tools. “What have you been working on here?”

Ares nearly spilled the wine he was pouring as he stared at the softly glowing stone. It was a faint white, like a dim lightbulb on its last legs. The behavior wasn’t unknown to him - it was the least of the ore’s unusual properties - but seeing it react to io’s presence opened up a dark realm of possibilities. What was it about that rock that reacted to organic material, and why? If it glowed in the presence of humans, what effects did it have on them?

There was only one way to find out. It could wait until next week’s lab, though.

“Ah, not a lot. In pedestrian terms, working on a...uh...suit. Something to enhance one’s natural abilities.” He evened out the wine between the two glasses as best he could, then strolled from the kitchen to hand io the smaller glass. “I don’t want to overwhelm you with the details - I don’t think you’d keep up, no offense to you - but I can’t quite get it to work. So I’m doing some tinkering at home to see if I can find some ways around my current stumbling block.”

He sipped the wine as she examined the plans and tools he had left out; no harm in letting her see plans he had drawn up himself for fun. But was this...cool? He contemplated the situation for a moment; while he enjoyed speaking on his work and having someone listen, if his last few relationships taught him anything he’d likely need to change course before it was too late.

Anxiety filled the scientist’s chest. Thoughts of work now warred with his desperation to keep her entertained. Formulas clashed with a vague understanding of ‘fun’, feverishly looking for some sort of middle ground.

“Do you like...telescopes?”  _ Nailed it. _ “I have a small patio with a high-powered telescope, I use it to view the stars when I’m taking a break. It’s a pretty clear night if you wanted to take a look.”

She sipped her wine too, the presumed polite thing to do when just handed a glass. But now she had her sights set on the table and the disassembled mechanical bits upon it. She had absolutely _no idea_ what any of the pieces corresponded to, and she was _thrilled_. Her wild imagination drew up pictures of mechanical bodies, gears and circuits and pistons. She held the glass to her lips, a bashful smile hidden behind it.

“Telescopes are nice!” io’s lashes fluttered—damn it she was thinking about pistons again—and she swirled the wine in its glass. “But I mean it, tell me about this.” She motioned back to the table with the wine hand. “I’m in the  _ mad scientist’s  _ secret evil lair and he’s trying to take me to the roof to see the stars. Really though, I’d love to know more. I wished all my life I could do this stuff.”

“Y...you’re serious?” Ares gave her a puzzled expression, at a loss for words. He hadn’t met anyone willing to listen to him talk about work for more than a minute at a time. For the first time that night, he smiled genuinely at her.

She had given the go-ahead to ‘nerd out’, and he wasted no time digging into the more complicated aspects of his work. The difficulties of properly wiring delicate and intricate machinery, as well as the perils of soldering joints and even bending the metal himself in order to make sure everything was up to his exact specifications. He was nothing if not meticulous, his excited rambling running for at least half an hour before stopping short of government secrets.

“...I believe that exo-suits like mine will be absolutely necessary if we plan on building colonies on other planets, or even other solar systems. Terraforming, creating potable water, rapid and efficient construction-“ Ares unbuttoned a few of his buttons and loosened his tie, realizing a little late that he had passionately talked up a sweat. “Hand in hand with our rapid advancements in robotics, humanity is going to be a universal leader in charting unknown territory. Phew.”

She hung off of his every word, even when it sounded like he was giving a pitch to Isotech execs in an attempt to secure project funding. It didn’t matter much—what she wanted was what she got. He walked her through his project in terms she could follow, bless him, and she asked questions along the way when she saw the opportunity. What little she knew about exo suits and new planet prep came from the occasional search and whatever she stumbled upon in Isotech’s limited shared files.

What she hadn’t expected out of the interaction was undeniably real,  _ human _ attraction after the half hour she hadn’t realized flew right by. He was a brilliant guy, she could say that much. She held her empty wine glass gingerly, eyes falling down his open buttons while he wrapped up the pitch on human capabilities paired with machine advancements. Like music to her ears. io’s throat bobbed as she swallowed in the face of nerve wracking desire.

“I-I’m at a loss for words, honestly, this is all so amazing.”  _ We should have sex _ . She touched a sample of the suit material he described. That wasn’t alcohol talking, and that seemed to be  _ more _ worrying. She set her empty glass down. Her confidence wasn’t at a great place, but desire had a wicked way with words.  _ He invited you here for a reason _ . 

“It’s like...the next step of human evolution.” She said after thinking, and her fingers slid from the material to his hand set firmly on the table. “And you’re the architect that’s going to take us over the edge.”

“Over the edge.” Ares repeated. He was dumbfounded, awestruck as his tired green eyes met her lustful red ones. Feeling her hand on top of his gave him goosebumps. His mouth felt tremendously dry, and gulping down half a glass of wine only proved to be a terrible idea. “Are we...doing this?”

She leaned up on her toes and crushed her lips to his, only careful enough to not knock the wine glasses onto his work. All her pent up sexual frustration found a way out the second he started talking about  _ tinkering  _ and  _ exo suits _ , and not a force in the world could’ve made her think twice. She boldly grabbed the back of his head, soft red hair between her fingers. Why  _ shouldn’t  _ she have sex with one of Isotech’s brightest innovators? What repercussions were there to worry about when they worked in entirely different departments?

io’s tongue dipped out onto his lower lip. The dialogue in her head fixated on the work he did. It fixated on the engineer that worked with his hands to bring human life together with tech and set the foundation for bigger things. Right now it didn’t matter than he wasn’t made of metal. She sucked on his lip in desperation, burning with the fire he started in her. Her free hand tugged him down by his tie.

“Yes.” She breathed, and inhaled musk and muted cologne. “I only have S-X on me, is that okay?”

“Of course it is, I’d rather that than a baby any day.” He uttered breathlessly. To his surprise and delight the night was moving fast, faster than he had ever anticipated. The speed of her lust - or perhaps it was the wine - was dizzying, and as much fun as he was having he struggled to keep up. He was out of his element, and no amount of degrees could help him now.

“W-We should-“ He struggled to speak, his attention split between the sensual suckling on his lip and how difficult his damn buttons were at the absolute worst time. Small, annoying little things that refused to come undone until they felt he had mentally begged enough. “Move to the bedroom, it’s more comfortable than the couch.”

His steps back toward his room were reluctant as he had no intention of breaking away from io, but he knew he had to make a move before things got too out of hand.

She let him go and nodded. Did she ever find men (or women) sexually attractive? Rarely. Was the engineer before her sexually attractive with a crooked tie, crinkled half undone shirt, and thoroughly attacked, reddened lips? Absolutely. As unfamiliar and almost  _ alien  _ as intimacy felt to io, nothing about what happened now did.  _ Pent up _ . 

He disappeared into the hallway and she hurried to the couch, all but jumping over the table to get there.  _ Remember, always keep these on you just in case _ . She fumbled for the silver dose dispenser, nestled at the bottom of the bag under ‘phone, keys, wallet’. Its inscription gleamed under the lights like the aerodynamic grooves of a luxury vehicle. She held onto it in her eager palm and rushed to follow Ares.

“ _ Oh _ .” She paused, just in time to watch his shirt slip off his shoulders. He matched her expectation of workaholic, lean but not thin, a lack of sun making him paler than his more warm-toned face. Even if she felt only a dull sense of sexual attraction, it was still viscerally alluring seeing somebody she admired...undressing. For her.

io averted her gaze to the dispenser, which spit out a dose as if it had been bursting at the seams. She dropped it onto the dresser and the pill pulsed between her fingers when she approached him. His belt was undone. Her other hand met his chest, and pushed him so that she could straddle his hips while the pants pooled around his ankles.

Her fingertips brushed his lips. She pressed the neon blue hotly to the underside of his tongue. Her fingers drew away from his mouth wet and she replaced them with her lips.

The neon pill rapidly dissolved as they kissed, the chalky taste of the medicine mixing with the fermented grapes from io’s lips to create an unusually delightful dichotomy of flavors. It was an experience he didn’t get from his formulas and blueprints in the lab - unexpected results. Spontaneity! There was no room for variation with rare metals and a tight budget, but beyond the confines of work even the most mundane surprise was enough to get his heart racing.

io was full of surprises, and he felt it in more than just his heart.

His hands crept up her thighs as if it was his first time, and in many respects it was. He was well-versed in the sensual side of life, but it was the first time that the feelings appeared to be so mutually overzealous. Wine-soaked butterflies drunkenly bumped against themselves in his stomach, unsteady nerves restricting his movements but opening him up to savoring her thick thighs as he slid io’s cocktail dress up and exposed her body further.

“H-Holy shit…hoooly shit.” He repeated. “I don’t know how much longer I can wait, I’m sorry-”

“Me neither,” she whispered on his lips, holding onto those images of circuits and suits he painted for her earlier. He was the creator. The symbol of idealized knowledge and a conduit for progression. Her fingertips traced his jaw.

Then her clothing was on the floor. Dim city lights coming in from the window drew shadows on her chest, highlighting her hard peaks while she waited for him to finish tossing his pants. Impatience got the best of her, and she palmed his length through his last remaining clothing. Incredibly responsive. He stood that for longer than she expected, but soon her fingers hooked into his waistband and they joined the rest on the floor.

Her face felt hot, hands on either side of his hips, the bones of which guided her eyes to fiery red hair trailing downwards from his lower belly. She considered touching him more; in the dim light his head still looked so flushed and desperate and she wondered if he was like her: peculiar. She climbed back on and hovered above him. 

Talking about machinery was the foreplay, and somehow she’d taken half an hour of it before giving in. She held herself open over his desperate cock. He twitched when she touched him.

“Could you do this in one of your suits?” She whispered, sinking down inch by pulsing inch. io shivered. She cursed herself over her fucked up attractions when sex with real people still felt good. Maybe if she could get him to talk about his work again... “I’m sure you’ve-  _ ah _ \- thought of everything.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely you can, shit-“ He inhaled sharply as io’s warmth enveloped his throbbing, needy cock. He couldn’t even consider how odd it was to be answering work questions, his mind singularly focused on the fact that io felt  _ incredible _ .

“The concept for the suit is that it’ll enhance the wearer’s natural abilities-“ Ares groaned, gripping the sheets with delight. She hadn’t really moved an inch, but being halfway into the woman of his dreams - and steadily gaining ground - was more than enough for him. “Speed, strength, stamina, all the good shit. Y-You could fuck for  _ days _ in those things. Theo- theo- maybe. H-Hopefully. Fuck.”

Shaky hands trailed their way up her bare body, cupping her breasts with a tenderness and familiarity that one would expect from a lifelong lover rather than a first time fling. He was enraptured by her curves, the way her sultry eyes gazed at him under the blue neon glow of the city, her wholehearted love for his work. Was it too soon to call her his soulmate? Logically, yes. But logic held little sway in the throes of passion.

“Maybe I could sneak you in. Let you see the stuff we’re doing. After hours.” He blurted out as she finally reached the base of his cock. His hips began to rock at a slow and sensual tempo, waging war with his urge to finish almost immediately. “Lab’s empty after 7. Plenty of stuff to see. Plenty of tables without cameras around.”

“Oh  _ fuck— _ ” io’s eyes went wide, though how  _ badly _ they wanted to roll back when he started thrusting. How easily he spiraled into work again honestly shocked her, but pleasantly so. It was perfect, in fact. Too perfect. She arched on him.

“Are- are you serious?” She asked, lifting her hips. He throbbed inside of her when she dropped back down. The quick rise and fall of his chest mesmerized her, almost as much as the expressions that twisted his face from driven professional to unashamedly needy lover. She bit her lip. An embarrassing mewl still escaped.

“I-I would  _ love _ to, Ares.” She moaned, and paused after the words left her mouth. His name sounded so different while sitting on his cock. io found her rhythm bouncing on him. She mustered her best doe eyes, tainted by lust. “Oh,  _ Ares~  _ You could do that for me?” 

“Are you kidding? Of course I could, I practically run the place. I mean, Tim’s the section head, but-” Ares inhaled sharply, an involuntary spasm testing his resolve. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out, but there was no way in hell he’d go out talking about fucking  _ Tim _ . “I can do it for you, yeah.”

Getting angry about  _ Tim _ only bought him a few seconds, as io dropping back down onto his cock drew him back into a much more palatable reality.

“Tell me something about you. Anything.” His voice was husky and low - a subtle warning sign. All he needed now was a nudge. “ P-Please.”

“ _ Ah— _ ” she nodded, palming his lower belly, feeling the soft red hair there and picking up his hints. It was hard to not get carried away by his promises, though. Sex-fueled or not, she had a good feeling he was serious, and that excited her. She’d get to see  _ the _ lab, not just whatever Isotech gave to the public. Her small breasts bounced with her movements, thoughts giving her a second wind.

“I’m pretty sure you’re the smartest person I’ve ever had sex with.” io gushed. Was that stupid to say? It was the first thing to come to mind. Her face felt hot. “People usually just don’t do it for me but you’re so fucking  _ hot _ .” Smart, she meant, because the two words meant the same thing in her head. Here she was with one accounting degree and apparently the entire universe's luck. She drove her hips down onto him.

“C-cum for me.”

And cum he did.

The combination of her clenching and her sweet words sent him soaring over the edge. He clutched his sheets tightly enough to turn his knuckles white, a pleasured moan struggling to break free from his tight lips. He practically felt lightheaded, mind-blowing pleasure overwhelming his senses and rendering him speechless for what felt like ages. There was something about sex with someone that actually cared about what you had to say that made it into an experience that couldn’t possibly be explained through words.

His head flopped back against the mattress, chest heaving with delighted, labored breaths. His mind raced with a solitary thought, like an unruly crowd shouting its furious desires:  _ More. More. More. Don’t let it end. _

“T-Turn over.” He rasped. He exhaled through his nose slowly, working on steadying his breathing and pulling himself together. “Get off and turn over  **_now_ ** .”

The spurts inside of her felt hot. Emphasized by his stillness, she fixated on the feeling of his inert seed coating her insides. Ares—should she call him Aaron now?— the brilliant scientist and engineer, her unexpected company for the night. His hands rested on her thighs. io heard the need in his voice and lifted off of him.

“ _ A-ahh. _ ” She paused on her hands and knees, feeling the rush of his release and looking down between her legs. S-X was a scientific  _ blessing  _ in terms of birth control technology, but its telltale side effect was probably io’s second favorite part about it. Neon orange streamed down her inner thighs. As beautiful in person as it was in the porn she normally consumed in place of human contact.  _ Artsy _ .

She laid on her back, blinked up at him as her legs fell open. 

“Like this?” She bit her lip.

“Yes, god dammit just like that-” Ares slurred excitedly, slipping off of the bed to kneel down and dip his head between her thighs. He was an addict chasing a pleasure high, throwing io’s legs over his shoulders and pressing his tongue against her exposed clit. Her pussy - and his chin - was a mess of orange neon splotches, trailing down and staining the sheets. He poured his heart and soul into pleasuring io. Kissing, suckling, licking, squeezing her thighs...he had no idea what he was doing down there with his own neon fluids streaked across his cheeks, but it felt right.

And her moans made it absolutely worth it.

“Oh,  _ FUCK _ !” She threw her head back. Her fingers buried themselves in his hair. His name slid off her tongue so many times that she should worry for his neighbors. Growing pleasure in the pit of her belly hit an unexpected peak when he made eye contact with her through it.

She could count on one hand the amount of people she’d had sex with in her life, but none she’d fucked the face of like this. The muscles in her legs quivered in the aftershocks of climax. Eating her out  _ after _ he’d finished was new. At least, for io. She nearly forgot he wasn’t a machine, when a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead and onto her hip bone.

“A-aaron,” she said breathlessly when he flopped down beside her, as spent as she was. “Can I stay the night?”

“I’d be insulted if you didn’t.”


End file.
